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Birchwind

“Landlords load college students into their units and get more per unit. Result: Fewer units available.” It would seem to me, if I am reading this right, that more students in one unit would mean more units available.

vjkpeace

You would think so, but what it does is inflate the “going rate” for an apartment.

Birchwind

More rental units available than the demand would drive prices down.

vjkpeace

If the rates are artificially inflated the real market value would determine. That the biz.

tet1953

“this problem is going to take more than just the provision of more housing units.” All I can gather from your post is that you feel landlords should accept less than the market will bear for their properties. How is that fair? Landlords have expenses too.

vjkpeace

If the price is artificially inflated then the “bubble” should be popped. How about if the universities providing dorms for their students and free up some decent housing.

MCHaye

“Landlords such as Avesta advertise one level of rent, but when they find
out you have a voucher, they up the rent. Result: Fewer units
available.”

That’s standard procedure and not unique to Avesta. The lower rent amount they advertise is for folks who don’t have a voucher. In that scenario the unit is being partially subsidized by either HUD or RD, and the subsidy stays with the unit, not the tenant.

If the tenant has a voucher, the contract rent is higher but still usually below market rent.

They can’t use the HUD or RD-subsidized amount for folks with vouchers because that would effectively be double-subsidizing the unit.

It wouldn’t make any different for the tenant anyway because when you have a voucher you pay 30% of your adjusted income regardless of the contract rent.

Folks who don’t qualify for a voucher (or are waiting for one, usually several years) still benefit greatly from the HUD or RD subsidy attached to the unit.

vjkpeace

So those people with vouchers, which means they have been in the program long enough to have one, get the crummy units that are on the market and those who don’t get the nice, new units. I speak from experience. Your technicalities are just that. It doesn’t matter that that is the way it works. What the article says is that there is something wrong with the system and what landlords, including Avesta, that fudge the rents are part of the system and therefore part of the problem.